KOLKATA: Another retired judge on Saturday resigned from the tribunals set up to hear appeals relating to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, citing personal reasons.
Justice Biswajit Basu, a retired judge of the Calcutta High Court, stepped down from the tribunals constituted following a directive from the Supreme Court. He informed Chief Justice R V Ghuge of his decision on Saturday.
He is the fourth among the 19 retired judges appointed to head the SIR tribunals to resign.
The apex court had directed the High Court to constitute tribunals to decide on the inclusion or exclusion of voters whose cases had been adjudicated following the SIR exercise in the state. In compliance with the directive, the High Court appointed 19 retired judges, including Justice Basu, to head the tribunals.
Justice Basu was assigned responsibility for handling cases relating to adjudicated voters in Murshidabad district.
About a month ago, another retired High Court judge, Justice Indrajit Chatterjee, had resigned from the tribunals.
Basu's resignation follows those of former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and retired judges Ranjit Kumar Bag and Indrajit Chatterjee.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) constituted 19 appellate tribunals for West Bengal in March in compliance with the Supreme Court's order. The SIR exercise resulted in the deletion of nearly 91 lakh voters from the state's draft electoral rolls for various reasons, including "logical discrepancies". Of the 91 lakh deleted voters, more than 64 lakh were categorised under the ASDD (absent, shifted, dead and duplicate) group as part of the SIR process.
The tribunals are hearing appeals filed by lakhs of voters whose names were deleted from the electoral rolls.
According to sources in the national poll body, the resignations of retired judges are likely to affect the disposal of appeals in Murshidabad district, where a large number of voters were excluded from the electoral rolls.
Justice Basu's resignation has added to the growing uncertainty surrounding the functioning of the SIR tribunals.
An ECI official said Basu and Chatterjee had been assigned responsibility for handling cases from Murshidabad district.
Justice Chatterjee had earlier resigned, citing the difficulty of travelling around 22 km every day. He had initially agreed to take up the assignment, believing it would be a temporary responsibility lasting two to three months. However, the sheer volume of pending cases eventually prompted him to withdraw.
During his tenure, Justice Chatterjee could hear only about 10 appeals a day. At that rate, it would take around 145 years to dispose of all the remaining five lakh cases, even if he worked 365 days a year.
More than 27 lakh voters were deleted following the adjudication process during the SIR exercise in West Bengal.
The Muslim-majority district of Murshidabad recorded the highest number of deletions under the "logical discrepancy" category. The district has 22 Assembly constituencies.
Justice Chatterjee was one of the two tribunal judges, along with Justice Basu, assigned to Murshidabad. He handled appeals from 11 constituencies, while Justice Basu was responsible for the remaining 11.
Most of the hearings are being conducted virtually through the offices of the respective Block Development Officers (BDOs), Justice Chatterjee had earlier told the media.